daniel grafstrom
level designer
2009 . Costa Rica
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After an incredible few days in the Corcovado National Park, it was time to head back to San Jose for our next set of adventures. Next up, Monte Verde (green mountain- you're going to be fluent in Spanish by the end of this). Getting there will take all day...
First we fly back to San Jose. There we had a mix of leasurely eating and drinking followed by a mad flip-flop rush to the bus station. The bus ride would take somewhere around six hours to get to Monte Verde. To continue the story of the Columbian drug trade and the missing cocaine, our bus was pulled over by the police while every bag was searched. No drugs were found. The last two hours or so was driving up a skinny dirt road on the edge of a cliff in the dark of night.
We arrived at Monte Verde at night, and the air was cool and very refreshing compared to the previous adventure on the beach. On the way to our hotel we saw this two toed sloth slowly making his way around this tree. Looks kind of like Don King.
The next morning we visited a cloud forest on the mountain. It was very nice, but not too cloudy at the time. Lots of neat birds to see, especially an elusive one that made a mechanichal squeek, a honk, and another completely different sound.
There were a couple of neat butterflies in there too. Not sure what kind this is though.
Ah hah! I do know this one, a clear winged butterfly. You could have probably guessed it.
Later in the day we did some ziplines across the jungle canopy. That was really awesome, a different way to appreciate the landscape. The tarzan swing was a blast. No photos there due to the rain and needing both hands to use the zipline. Would have been a pretty cool view though. Here's a hummingbird drinking out of a totally natural feeder at the HQ. We returned to Monte Verde for the night and went out for some drinks! We met some pretty cool people and hung out for a while, good times.
The next morning we crammed some breakfast while a cab was waiting outside to take us to a boat. The cab ride was slow and very bumpy. Maybe not the best after a night of drinking, but we made it. The scenery was very nice the whole ride, nice rolling hills, all sorts of farms, and a glimpse of Arenal volcano. This is the view as we boarded the boat. There we had a 20-30 minute ride across the lake, that was smooth, cool, quiet, and very relaxing. Lots of more rich green hills all around us.
The end destination of the cab, boat, cab ride. (I think) this is the city of Arenal, and that of course is the volcano. Very nice city, we went to do some canyoneering where we rappeled down a stream and off the side of some tall cliffs. Another great way to stay cool. Late in the evening we went to one of the many hot springs in the area for more drinks and relaxing! This is the end of my photo journey. The next morning we took a bus to a river for some white water rafting in category 5 rapids! The Pacuare River was challenging and beautiful, luckily our raft never flipped over. The times where we could get off the raft and swim were pretty amazing. After these great adventures it was time to head back to San Jose. Overall a very good trip, my first out of the country. Many thanks to Gabe for bringing me along, and Costa Rica for being so awesome! I can't wait for new adventures.
Here are some funny translations we saw. Garlic powered bus!
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